rld, that Madame Carson had arrived at a knowledge of the
terrible secret. When M. de Veron, after spraining his ankle, was
carried in a state of insensibility into the room behind her shop, she
had immediately busied herself in removing his neckcloth, unfastening
his shirt, then a flannel one which fitted tightly round the neck, and
thus obtained a glimpse of the branded letters 'T. F.' With her
customary quickness of wit, she instantly replaced the shirts,
neckcloth, &c., and carefully concealed the fatal knowledge she had
acquired, till an opportunity of using it advantageously should
present itself.

The foregoing are, I believe, all the reliable particulars known of a
story of which there used to be half-a-hundred different versions
flying about Le Havre. Edouard le Blanc married Madame Carson, and
subsequently became a partner of Eugene de Veron. It was not long,
however, before the business was removed to another and distant French
seaport, where, for aught I know to the contrary, the firm of 'De
Veron and Le Blanc' flourishes to this day.

BETTING-OFFICES.

'Betting-shop' is vulgar, and we dislike vulgarity. 'Commission
Office,' 'Racing Bank,' 'Mr Hopposite Green's Office,'
'Betting-Office,'are the styles of announcement adopted by speculators
who open what low people call Betting-shops. The chosen designation is
usually painted in gold letter on a chocolate-coloured wire-gauze
blind, impervious to the view. A betting-office may display on its
small show-board two bronzed plaster horses, rampant, held by two
Ethiopian figures, nude; or it may prefer making a show of cigars.
Many offices have risen out of simple cigar-shops. When this is the
case, the tobacco business gives way, the slow trade and fast
profession not running well together. An official appearance is always
considered necessary. A partition, therefore, sufficiently high not to
be peered over, runs midway across the shop, surmounted with a rail.
By such means, visions are suggested to the intelligent mind of desks,
clerks, and, if the beholder has sufficient imagination, of bankers'
clerks. In the partition is an enlarged _pigeon_-hole--not far off,
may be supposed to lurk the hawk--through which are received
shillings, half-crowns; in fact, any kind of coin or notes, no sum
appearing inadmissible. The office is papered with a warm crimson
paper, to make it snug and comfortable, pleasant as a lounge, and
casting a genial glow upon the pr